Photography advise

[Steve Gio]

I have seen so many great photos on this site I thought I'd ask for an opinion. I have been into photography for a few years now. Shoot Olympus E-410 and most of my shots come out pretty good. Sometimes I have a real problem with light as you can see in the attached picture. I end up with a very yellowish tint to everything. Does anyone have advice on avoiding the yellow tint. I have others that my wife has pointed out to have the same issue.

I pretty much shoot manual or AP and adjust my WB accordinly. I don't usually shoot RAW but sometimes when it is necessary. This I metered this one and under exposed slightly since the clouds we a little over powering.

Thanks all.

[heim0087]

Do you use the camera's WB settings, or do you calibrate your own? Another question I would have is if you use any filters on your lenses? These could effect the color of the photo. Also, what metering setting do you use? matrix or spot? The answer could lie in any of these issues, or others that more talented members could help with. How do your pictures turn out indoors or in a more controlled environment? Is the problem still the same, or do the pictures look better? And one more, what is the saturation setting on the camera? Is it set to normal or vivid?

OK, enough rambling questions. Try experimenting with these settings and see what happens. I hope that they help and it's not the camera's processor.

Good luck! Photography is an amazing hobby, but it's a real pain sometimes!

[Steve Gio]

I pretty much use the pre set WB settings. The only filter at this time was a UV filter. Saturation is vivid and I don't shoot indoors much. I would be curious about changing my saturation setting now that you mention it as it is set high.

For landscapes I usually use matrix metering or center weighted. With a specific subject or a high contrast situation I use spot to check various points in the scene and expose for the average. It seems that cloudy days with lots of greens give me the most trouble.

[JayMiller]

To be honest, I do not see much yellow color cast in the provided picture. If there were a yellow cast, you would expect to see it in the light greys on the sky and in the blueish haze in the distance which would appear slightly green. These appear to have true color. Most editing software has the ability to remove color cast by selecting a area that should to pure white or middle grey and correcting the color cast so this area is true. You might try this on a few of your pictures. If the pictures remain unchanged, then you probably do not have a problem and the subject simply had a lot of yellow tones.

If it corrects the picture, then your white balance in off. It may be as simple as the white balance being set for the wrong light source or the balance is set to produce warm (stronger in the yellows) tones. It may also be that the actual sensor in the camera if off. In that case you will need to experience with the white balance until you get the colors you need under different lighting conditions.

Anyway, it a really niece picture.

Before I posted this, you posted your second post. Since you are having most problems with scenes with greens, I do suspect that your white balance is set for warm pictures. Also, I have found that setting my Nikon for vivid color does emphasize the yellows and reds over the blues and greens.

[Steve Gio]

Thanks guys. Think I will decrease the saturation value and see what happens. Maybe it will give me an excuse to go back to crested butte next summer to ride the 401 trail again. Sometimes the best images are the ones that stay in your mind.

[Steve Gio]

Afterthough: Maybe it is not the settings but the time of day that I am having trouble with. We usually hike or bike all day but put off taking out the camera until we make some headway. In this case I had and 11 mile up hill ride to get to this point. By that time it was mid day.

Just thinking out loud.

[Bill Cummings]

What this shot seems to need most (to me) is a ND grad filter (graduated neutral density filter). These filters neutral-darken half of your image (usually the upper half) and leave the other half unchanged. They are almost a requirement when shooting mountain landscapes, because the camera can't handle the contrast differences of very light backgrounds and dark foregrounds (such as you have in this picture).

Polarizers (filters) are also near-requirements for outdoor photography.

In addition to that, I'd check your camera's WB, contrast, and saturation settings (as the other folks have noted). When in doubt, leave them on the default settings. Even better, open the menu and play with different settings on some colorful subject near your home. It's great to experiment with these and know what results the different settings will give you--before you go out on the trail and start taking "keeper" shots!

[Jack]

Hey Steve glo,
You shouldn't need to much incentive to make you want to go back to Crested Butte to ride! I went there for the first time earlier this fall to ride and had a great time. I had a camera with me, but the only pictures I took were from the very top of the 403 and the 401. I just couldn't bring myself to stop in the middle of either of those descents. On the 401 I almost crashed a couple times because I was looking at the scenery too much. haha. Next time try riding up Washington gulch, descending the 403 then going up Gothic rd. and coming back into town on the 401. Great loop - 31+mi. with ~4,700' of climbing.
Sorry I don't have much advice about that photo, but for me the best images, those of Gothic mountain from the 401, are definitely just locked in my mind. Good on you for actually riding up Gothic road to the top. Enjoy the rides.
Jack

[Bean]

Shoot raw, correct any WB issues in post. Also, you could throw a GND filter on there in Lightroom in about 15 seconds to brighten up the darker areas brought about by underexposing the shot.

[thebeave7]

Neutral densities are nice, but are only good for correcting a few stops worth of difference between the sky and foreground.
As Bean said, get yourself a good post-processing program. Once you have one and you know how to use it you can make a lot of adjustments later, including; sharpening, saturatin adjustments, shadow enhancements, and so on. Of course you don't want to alter it so much that you lose your original image, but it can help bring out the true nature of the photo.
Another trick is to take the photo slightly underexposed then use shadow enhancement to bring up the lighting in the foreground when shooting at those tough times of the day. If you shoot really early morning or at twillight when the light is a little more even you may have better luck. Though anytime you shoot outside shadows are always going to be a tough thing to contend with.

Eric

[Dorje1018]

Does anyone else find it a shame that the technology of post-processing has eliminated the art of capturing a moment as it was? Now, if you don't get the picture you were hoping for you can create that image using a computer program.
It's a lot like Barry Bonds using steroids...

[Bean]

Does anyone else find it a shame that the technology of post-processing has eliminated the art of capturing a moment as it was? Now, if you don't get the picture you were hoping for you can create that image using a computer program.
It's a lot like Barry Bonds using steroids...

No. It's frequently impossible to get a photograph to be representative of how it really looked out there. The technology allows it to happen without spending hours in a darkroom.

[heim0087]

I agree with all of the advice posted. Another issue to consider is not even the camera, but the calibration of your monitor. Have you ever printed your photos on paper and compared them to the one displayed on your monitor? Computer monitors can be off by a substantial margin, causing any post-processing to be irrelevant to the print. I think the vast majority of people skip this step (myself included), but it can make a difference, especially if you see yellow tones etc. where others might not. Our monitors might just be playing tricks on us.

[Steve Gio]

Jack: Quite right. I think we will head back in mid summer to ride those trails in the wildflowers. Loved the area. I don't take too many breaks for pictures but some call for it. Here is one of my wife on the uphill part of the 401. Love the switchbacks and yes we both cleaned them. Well except for me taking this.

Bill: I do use a polarizer sometimes but on bike trips I don't usually whip it out. I would like to get a GND as well but just haven't got around to it. Too many other things... but soon.

Dorje: I'm with you. I'd rather take a great picture and limit pp to cropping and printing. Guess I will eventually have to get the GND. I'd rather save the money from processing software towards an Oly 70-300mm. Listening Santa???

Heim: I agee there as well. In fact the only time we actually print pictures now is when we send them to family.

Thanks all for the input. I do a fair amount of reading about photography and know most of what has been said. Its just like stage gitters though. When it comes time I am probably rushing or forget something and think later about what I should have done. Good to know there are so many knowledgeable people on this site. Maybe we should get together for beers and talk about bokeh. Thanks again.

Steve

[Kane]

Hi Steve,

I shoot Nikon so I hope the following makes some sense. I would speculate your yellowish tint comes from the white balance set too warm. If its on "auto" then your cameras sensor and metering may be over compensating low light because of the cloud cover. Try a manual "cooler"setting. Nikon translates day time warms from 5500K-6000K and cools from 4900k-5500k. Your shot looks about 6000K. Really warm. I would shoot that shot around 5200K.

Hope this helps.

Kane